New Tenant Bills Taking Effect 2019

The state legislature remains beholden to the real estate interests that roam the halls of the Capitol and fund political campaigns of both major parties. Real estate industry power in Sacramento was on full display in 2018 with the following losses in the Capitol:

AB 1506 (Bloom) to repeal the state Costa Hawkins law was killed in committee in January 2018.

AB 2925 (Bonta) to require a landlord to state cause for eviction was crushed on the Assembly floor.

AB 2434 (Chiu) to extend the time to respond to eviction notices/UDs was severely weakened.

Despite the obstacles to transformative tenant protection bills, TT and our allies once again accomplished a lot against the odds. Congratulations to our friends at Western Center, CRLA Foundation, Public Advocates, and National Housing Law Project for their sponsorship of successful tenant protection bills in this difficult session.

Effective January 1, 2019, the following new laws take effect:

AB 2219 (Ting): A landlord must accept third-party payment of rent where there is acknowledgment in writing that the third party doesn’t claim tenancy rights.

AB 1919 (Wood): It is already illegal for a landlord to jack up rents over 10% following a natural disaster declaration. Now it is also illegal for a landlord to do evictions to accomplish such a rent increase.

AB 686 (Santiago): Local governments must “affirmatively further fair housing” and do an AFFH study as part of their housing elements. As Trump guts similar federal requirements, this was a major step forward for CA.

AB 2413 (Chiu) prohibits landlords from maintaining policies that deem tenants a “nuisance” for frequent calls for emergency assistance and would prohibit cities from requiring or imposing such policies.

SB 998 (Dodd) Strengthens protections against water shutoffs.

Effective September 1, 2019:

AB 2343 (Chiu). Excludes weekends and holidays in calculating response times for certain eviction notices and responses to unlawful detainer lawsuits. This will give longer for tenants to respond in many eviction cases.